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Fantasy & Sci-Fi in the Classroom

Lesson Plan #11 – Superheroes, Ethnicity & Gender

Relevant Courses

Writing/Literature

Reading

Popular Culture

Film Studies

History, 20th Century, United States

Humanities

Race/Ethnic Studies

Sociology

Women’s Studies

LGBT Studies

Texts

Ahmed, Saladin. “Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions.” Strange Horizons, 15 Feb. 2010. www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100215/diablo-f.shtml.

audio version available: “PodCastle Miniature 75: Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions.” PodCastle: The Fantasy Fiction Podcast, 17 March 2013 (14½ min.). podcastle.org/2013/03/17/podcastle-miniature-75-doctor-diablo-goes-through-the-motions/,

alternate audio version, castroller.com/podcasts/Podcastle/3432355.

[Rated R. This story contains profanity and terminology some may find offensive]

“Fantasy & Sci-Fi in the Classroom: Lesson 11- Superheroes, Ethnicity & Gender”

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Additional Resources

Demby, Gene. “Who Gets To Be A Superhero? Race And Identity In Comics.” National Public Radio (Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture and Ethnicity series), 11 Jan. 2014. www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/01/11/261449394/who-gets-to-be-a-superhero-race-and-identity-in-comics.

Martin, Orion. “What If the X-Men Were Black?” The Hooded Utilitarian. 16 Dec. 2013. www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/12/what-if-the-x-men-were-black/.

Headlee, Celeste. “Cartoonist on Sikh Superhero Who Fights Prejudice” National Public Radio (8 min. podcast), 23 Nov. 2012. www.npr.org/2012/11/23/165667814/cartoonist-pens-sikh-superhero-who-fights-racism.

Baker-Whitelaw, Gavia. “Marvel: No plans for a female-led superhero movie before 2017.” The Daily Dot, 22 Oct. 2013. www.dailydot.com/entertainment/marvel-no-female-superhero-movie-plans/.

Funkhouse, Kathryn. “Earth to Hollywood: People Will Pay to See a Female Superhero Film.” The Atlantic, 26 Dec. 2013. www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/ 12/earth-to-hollywood-people-will-pay-to-see-a-female-superhero-film/282107/

Villagomez, Andrew. “Keeping Up With the Gays of DC & Marvel.” Out, 11 Oct. 2012. hwww.out.com/entertainment/popnography/2012/10/11/keeping-gays-dc-and-marvel.

Hudson, Laura. “DC Introduces First Transgender Character in Mainstream Comics.” Wired.com, 10 Apr. 2013. www.wired.com/underwire/2013/04/transgender-dc-comics-batgirl/?pid=9875#slideid-9875.

Veregge, Jeffrey. “Native American Superheroes.” HiConsumption.com, n.d. hiconsumption.com/2013/04/native-american-superheroes-by-jeffrey-veregge/.

Superheroes: A Never-Endling Battle. PBS Video (3-part series). 2013. DVDs.

recent superhero films such as: Iron Man (2008), Iron Man (2010), X-Men: First Class (2011), or The Avengers (2012). DVDs.

“The 99,” www.the99.org/.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to—

Discuss and/or Write about the portrayal of ethnicity, race, gender and/or sexual orientation in the American superhero genre, in print and/or filmed entertainment, and the implications of those portrayals for young consumers of the genre.

Explain the social commentary about superheroes, villains and race that Saladin Ahmed is making in his short story, “Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions.”

“Fantasy & Sci-Fi in the Classroom: Lesson 11- Superheroes, Ethnicity & Gender”

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Student Activities

(Your instructor may assign any or all these activities; it may take several classes to complete them.)

READ—

Ahmed, Saladin. “Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions.” Strange Horizons, 15 Feb. 2010. www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100215/diablo-f.shtml.

LISTEN—

“PodCastle Miniature 75: Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions.” PodCastle: The Fantasy Fiction Podcast, 17 March 2013 (14½ min.). podcastle.org/2013/03/17/podcastle-miniature-75-doctor-diablo-goes-through-the-motions/, alternately, castroller.com/podcasts/Podcastle/3432355.

Headlee, Celeste. “Cartoonist on Sikh Superhero Who Fights Prejudice” National Public Radio (8 min. podcast), 23 Nov. 2012. www.npr.org/2012/11/23/165667814/cartoonist-pens-sikh-superhero-who-fights-racism.

ACTIVITY A.) RESEARCH & REPORT.

The following are excerpts from “Who Gets To Be A Superhero? Race And Identity in Comics”—

“‘The X-Men are hated, feared and despised collectively by humanity for no other reason than that they are mutants,’ Chris Claremont, a longtime X-Men writer once said. ‘So what we have here, intended or not, is a book that is about racism, bigotry and prejudice.’”

“But an artist named Orion Martin noted that the X-Men comics have skirted around the depiction of the people on the receiving end of much real-life discrimination: the main lineup in the X-Men team has been mostly straight, white dudes.”

“There's a moment [at the end of] the most recent X-Men movie [X-Men: First Class (2011)] in which Magneto, played by Michael Fassbender, is making his pitch to a group of young mutants, and he makes a fairly on-the-nose allusion to real-life racial discrimination. Almost all the mutants of color and the mutants who are not otherwise obviously human decide to roll with him. The white kids who looked ‘normal’ teamed with Xavier. It was hard to miss the subtext: the people who can't simply ‘pass’ were going to find it harder to be accepted, and so assimilation was a much harder sell.”

“Fantasy & Sci-Fi in the Classroom: Lesson 11- Superheroes, Ethnicity & Gender”

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READ the rest of the article: Demby, Gene. “Who Gets To Be A Superhero? Race And

Identity In Comics.” National Public Radio (Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture and

Ethnicity series), 11 Jan. 2014.

www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/01/11/261449394/who-gets-to-be-a-superhero-

race-and-identity-in-comics

RESEARCH on the Internet, or in Library databases, the role and portrayal of various races,

ethnic groups (e.g. Arabic, Asian, Latino, etc.), genders, and/or sexual orientations in

superhero literature and filmed entertainment.

WATCH—

Superheroes: A Never-Endling Battle. PBS Video (3-part series). 2013. DVDs.

Plus a recent superhero movie, such Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), X-Men: First Class (2011), or The Avengers (2012). DVDs.

WRITE A REPORT about portrayal of ethnicity, race, gender and/or sexual orientation in

the American superhero genre, in print and/or filmed entertainment, and the

implications of those portrayals for young consumers of the genre. Some ideas to

discuss—

Describe the predominant physical characteristics of the heroes vs. the villains; is

there a marked racial, ethnic, gender difference between these two groups?

Describe the main characters vs. the supporting characters; is there a marked racial,

ethnic, gender difference between these two groups?

Describe the difference in costumes between the male and female characters; is

there a marked difference in how men’s and women’s bodies are depicted? What

physical features are highlighted or hidden? How much skin is revealed in men’s and

women’s costumes?

The Demby articles mentions “passing”. What does that term mean regarding racial

identity? What is the historical context of “passing” in places such as the pre-Civil

Rights United States or Apartheid-era South Africa? How is “passing” reflected in the

superhero genre?

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ACTIVITY B.) PROJECT PINBOARD.

CREATE A PINBOARD using Pinterest (or a similar content-sharing service that allows

members to "pin" images, videos and other objects), collect and save images of

superheroes and supervillains from comic books, graphic novels, video games, TV and

film. Discuss messages about race, ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation that

these images suggest.

For example, here’s a Pinterest board on “Black Female Superheroes.” Are you or your classmates familiar with any of these characters? Have they appeared in any movies or TV shows? As leading ladies or supporting characters? What do their appearances/costumes/ body-shapes suggest about the portrayal of black female superheroes, or even female superheroes in general? (You can do this activity with any ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.)

Figure 1. Source: Leah R. Gipson. “Black Female Superheroes.” Pinterest, retrieved 04 Feb. 2014.

www.pinterest.com/leahrgipson/black-women-superheroes/.

SHARE your pinboard with the class, explaining—

a. Why you selected these particular objects?

b. What insights they gave you into the portrayal of race, ethnicity, gender

and/or sexual orientation in the superhero genre?

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ACTIVITY C.) PROJECT CODE-SWITCH.

Some artists are “code-switching” superheroes, that is, changing their appearance to suggest different races, ethnicities, even gender representations, as in this example—

Figure 2. The X-Men’s Emma Frost. How do perceptions of her character change by the changing of her skin tone from the

original pale to dark? Source: Orion Martin, "What If the X-Men Were Black?" The Hooded Utilitarian (16 Dec. 2013).

READ—

Demby, Gene. “Who Gets To Be A Superhero? Race And Identity In Comics.” National Public Radio (Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture and Ethnicity series), 11 Jan. 2014. www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/01/11/261449394/who-gets-to-be-a-superhero-race-and-identity-in-comics.

Martin, Orion. “What If the X-Men Were Black?” The Hooded Utilitarian. 16 Dec. 2013. www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/12/what-if-the-x-men-were-black/.

Veregge, Jeffrey. “Native American Superheroes.” HiConsumption.com, n.d. hiconsumption.com/2013/04/native-american-superheroes-by-jeffrey-veregge/.

CREATE your own superhero that represents YOU, or “code switch” an existing supehero or villain by changing visual cues of race, ethnicity or gender. Use any art medium (e.g. pencil, paints, computer graphics, images cut from magazines, clay, etc.).

SHARE your art with the class—

a. why did you represent your character as you did?

b. what kinds of discussions are code-switchers trying to initiate?

c. what insights did this project give you concerning the portrayal of race,

ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation in the superhero genre?

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ACTIVITY D.) CREATE A SUPERHERO COMIC STRIP.

CREATE your own superhero comic strip: Write the storyline, plan your characters, settings and dialogue, then produce them using an online comic strip generator. A couple popular comic generators are—

MakeBeliefsComix, www.makebeliefscomix.com/.

Bitstrips, www.bitstrips.com/.

Figure 3. Sample Comic Strip from MakeBeliefComix.com

ACTIVITY E.) GLOBAL SUPERHEROES

Superheroes are often thought of in the

context of American pop-culture, but they

are a worldwide phenomenon. Explore the popular

Islamic superheroes, “The 99”. Research and

report back to the class on similarities &

differences in appearance, morals/ethics, super-

powers, and storylines between “The 99” and

either “The Avengers” or “The Justice League of

America.”

The 99, www.the99.org/.

“The 99: Islamic Superheroes Going Global,” CNN.com, 20 Jun 2013,

edition.cnn.com/2013/06/11/showbiz/comic-book-heroes-the-99-write/.

“U.S., Muslim superheroes meet at first Middle East ComicCon,” Latitude News, n.d.

www.latitudenews.com/story/middle-east-comicon/.

Figure 4. "The 99: Beginnings," Islamic superheroes created by Kuwati, Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa